Album Sweep: February 21, 2015 - Part One...

It's time to roll out the first half of this week's "album sweep", sampling the records making their debut on Billboard magazine's Top Album Sales chart (as opposed to their Top 200, which shoves album tracks and streaming into the mix). As usual, I've included highlighted links to buy any of the new sets, as well as some of the artists' other major work....

The top-selling album in the U.S. is the 53rd installment of the hit various artist compilation Now That's What I Call Music! (or Now 53), which sold just under a hundred thousand copies in its first week. The collection contains sixteen big hits (plus five wannabes), including the current #1 pop hit "Uptown Funk!", as well as ten more top-ten hits. The last volume topped out at #2 but did cross the 100K level...

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Female vocal group Fifth Harmony chimes in at #3 with their first full-length album Reflection. They previously saw an EP hit the top-ten as well...

Bob Dylan returns at #7 with his cover album of Frank Sinatra-popularized classics, Shadows In The Night. The 36th studio set from the folk-rock poet laureate becomes his 19th release altogether to make the top-10; he's topped the album chart five times, most recently with Together Through Life in 2009...

Another album aiming for the "adult" Valentines day market, Canadian jazz singer Diana Krall's Wallflower, enters at #8, landing the artist her sixth top-10 placing. She previously went to #3 with Quiet Nights in 2009...

Rapper Kid Ink's third album Full Speed drives in at #10. It follows My Own Lane, which peaked at #3 at the beginning of last year...

Christian-pop artist Jeremy Camp ascends to #17 with his eighth studio effort I Will Follow. It's his fifth to make the top-40; he climbed to #15 in 2010 with We Cry Out: The Worship Project...

The latest archival release from the Grateful Dead, Dave's Picks, Volume 13: Winterland, San Francisco, CA-2/24/74 drops in at #21. It's the fifth in that series to make the top-40, and highest rank of all of them...

Rapper Skizzy Mars debuts at #23 with The Red Balloon Project EP...

That's it for the first half of the new bunch...out of these eight the three to check out first are the Diana Krall, Now 53,  and Fifth Harmony sets...

I'll return tomorrow with the second half...